FULLERTON – A bailiff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was sentenced to a year in jail today after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, prosecutors said.

James Joseph Doyle, 45, of Long Beach, had initially been charged with a felony and faced up to three years in prison – but Judge Roger B. Robbins reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, prosecutors said.

Doyle pleaded guilty today to that misdemeanor charge of lewd acts upon a 15-year-old child. Besides the jail term, he was also sentenced to three years probation, and has to register as a sex offender.

The molestation occurred on June 20, 2008, in Yorba Linda, authorities said. Doyle knew the victim – she was the daughter of Doyle’s friend who was in the hospital, prosecutors said. He offered to take the teenage victim and her sister out for food, they said.

On the drive home, the victim complained that her shoulder was hurting, prosecutors said. Doyle massaged her back and touched her inappropriately under her shirt, they said.

The victim told her mother a week later – but the pair did not report the incident until after the girl’s father died in September 2008, prosecutors said.

Authorities arrested Doyle on Oct. 15, 2008. He had been relieved from duty by the Sheriff’s Department.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.